Fans frustrated with The Challenge vets throwing the game for friendship

Danny and Tori of Team USA during the Highway Hijacking challenge in THE CHALLENGE: WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, season 1, episode 9 streaming on Paramount+, 2023
Danny and Tori in The Challenge: World Championship (Image credit: Jonne Roriz/Paramount+)

There has been a notable difference between the way The Challenge vets on World Championship (Kaycee Clark, Tori and Jordan and the like) and the MVPs have played the game. As Tori's partner Danny — who has gone against his veteran partner and allied himself with the rookies —succinctly put it: "We're playing a strategic game. They're playing an emotional game... I don't care about your friendships."

Those longstanding alliances, which have stretched across many spin-offs of the competition series, has complicated the game for several players and further more has frustrated fans watching at home, who feel the the franchise veterans are putting loyalties to their friends ahead of their chance of winning. 

"One of the main differences between MVPs and legends is honor," vet Jordan Wiseley says during Wednesday's episode. "We've played this game so many times with one another that we've built trust and loyalty."

After Jordan and his partner Kaz lose out on this week's challenge, finishing the "Points Break" swimming relay one mere second after winners Yes and Emily ("Emily and Yes have a very high probability of winning. It's a swimming challenge for an Olympic champion swimmer!" Jordan joked before the relay began), the veteran player is worried not only about his team's own standing but the potential of one of his friends going into elimination: "Right now, Tori, myself and Kaycee, we're screwed. Worse-case scenario is that we have to say each other's names. It's like twisting a dagger in the heart."

To protect Jordan and Kaycee, Tori wants her and Danny to throw themselves into elimination against the losing team Kiki and Darrell. "My friends have taken the path that has been more difficult way more than I have this season," she says. "I've literally done nothing but float through."

But her partner is confused by the strategy. "Tori, you gotta realize, you are one of the safest people in the house right now," he tells her, adding in a confessional: "Will I do it? Hell no!" 

She brings it up again during the house vote, but Danny still refuses. Instead, the house vote hits a voluntary stalemate, with the competitors leaving the choice up to Yes and Emily, who send in Kaycee and Troy to go up against Kiki and Darrell.

Thankfully for her allies, Kaycee and her partner win the elimination challenge and return to the house. "We just poked a stick in the beehive," Yes worries. "I know Kaycee and Troy are coming for us."

Fans are frustrated with The Challenge vets:

New episodes of The Challenge: World Championship release on Paramount Plus every Wednesday.

Christina Izzo

Christina Izzo is the Deputy Editor of My Imperfect Life. More generally, she is a writer-editor covering food and drink, travel, lifestyle and culture in New York City. She was previously the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York. 

When she’s not doing all that, she can probably be found eating cheese somewhere.